Review of Nebraska (2013) by Dave C — 01 Mar 2014

At first I found myself scratching my head over this slow and pondering character drama. It simply comes across as slightly dull, sort of depressingly dark and moody. About three quarters in the film won me over. Maybe it is the realism. I could not help but walk through certain personalities in my own life who remind me of the cranky and ornery Bruce Dern. The banter between Keach and Dern is more than genuinely funny, its a part of those relationships which make life worthwhile and entertaining. You know, the sort where two people become so comfortable with each other and their faults and habits and history that the line between words of love and insult becomes blurred. The kind of relationship where you spend every day yelling about how your partner keeps the toilet seat up and drinks straight out of the milk carton, but yet you both simply know that you could not live without the other. This is what made me laugh so hard, because I also couldn't help but picture myself growing in that same sort of relationship. In many respects I have already started down that road.

The film is also about the family that it exposes for the mundane routine that fuels these sort of relationships. As it follows an old man with a stubborn insistence on reaching Lincoln, Nebraska on foot so as to claim a million dollar prize that a common spam mail out informed him could be his, we are invited in on a rare opportunity for a family to revisit their roots and reexamine their lives together, missed opportunities and all. Secrets are revealed, and sparks are reignited. Memories are rehashed and honesty is wrestled with. And it all feels very real. The slow pace captures this realism and spins in to something that feels quite unrehearsed and undisciplined, but does so in a positive way. The results are revealing, sometimes humbling and challenging, and often times very humorous in a real life scenario kind of way. I especially enjoyed Forte's and Dern's slow growing dynamic and chemistry.